Economic Jitters Send Wall Street Into Plunge
Wall Street shares tumbled on Monday as fears about the economy intensified after data showing a modest rise in home sales also reflected falling prices and record housing inventories. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank 2.08% to close at 11,386.25 and the Nasdaq dropped 2.03% to 2,365.59. The Standard & Poor’s 500 broad-market index shed 1.96% to 1,266.84. The financial shares were pressured by news of Friday’s takeover by regulators of Columbian Bank and Trust of Topeka, Kansas, and worries that Lehman Brothers may not be able to get a major investment from South Korea. A real estate industry group reported sales of existing US homes rose 3.1% in July to a five-month high, somewhat better than expected. But on a 12-month basis, July sales of homes and apartments fell 13.2%, underscoring the deep woes of the real estate market.

Eng Wah Organization Agrees To Sell Its Properties For $99.5m
Eng Wah Organization has entered into two sale and purchase agreements with EW.G to sell the entire issued and paid up share capitals of Eng Wah Film, Wah Pho and Kin Wah for a total sum of $99.5m. The sale transactions are important condition precedent to the reverse takeover exercise involving Transcu, whereby Eng Wah will acquire issued and paid-up capital, and outstanding options of Transcu, by way of exchange for the shares of Eng Wah. The number of shares of Eng Wah to be issued and allotted to the shareholders of Transcu, for exchange shall be such number that will constitute at least 91.5 % of the enlarged share capital of Eng Wah upon completion of the share exchange.

Gems TV Reports Full-Year Revenue Increase Of 48%
Gems TV Holdings’s full-year revenue increased 48% from $159.8m to $236.1m year-on-year, driven by increases in revenue from the US and initial contributions from Japan and China. Overall economic conditions in the US and UK markets have been weak, and have hampered the Group’s bottomline expectations. Gems TV is taking proactive steps to further reduce costs in areas such as television production, warehouse, call center functions and manufacturing capacities. CEO Jason Choo said, “We recognize that macro-economic conditions are testing the resilience of our businesses across all our markets. Despite the challenges, Gems TV is still in a strong position. We will be keeping a watchful eye on costs and investing in important areas such subscriber base expansion and product development.”

Omega Navigation Announces Charter on 37,000 DWT Newbuilding Vessel
Omega Navigation Enterprises, a provider of global marine transportation services focusing on product tankers, has concluded an agreement to charter its 37,000 dwt newbuilding product tanker to NYK Line for three years commencing on delivery of the vessel from the shipyard around March 2010, with option for NYK to extend for two one year periods at higher rates. The charter is expected to generate annual EBITDA of approximately $6m. President and CEO George Kassiotis added, “NYK is a first class company with a very strong balance sheet and access to markets all over the world. We hope this leads to a very strong partnership between the two companies and anticipate creating further operational synergies between us in the future.”

DMX Wins Rmb63m Contract From Hubei Chutian Broadcasting Network
Mainboard-listed DMX Technologies Group, a leading information technology enabler and digital media technology provider, has been awarded a Rmb63m contract from Hubei Chutian Broadcasting Network, Hubei province’s cable TV operator, in the first phase of the province’s cable TV digitisation programme. Under this initial contract, DMX’s Digital Media segment will provide solutions for a cost effective and scalable digital TV services rollout to less than 10% of the entire customer base of Hubei Chutian before the end of 2009. This provincial win follows closely on the heels of breakthroughs with two provincial operators in Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia this year. Commenting on the latest win, CEO Jismyl Teo added, “DMX has built a solid foundation with various large and important operators during the last 2 years and we look forward to becoming a prominent player in the digital media market in the future.”